Sonia, Pranab discuss formation of Telangana

Congress president Sonia Gandhi held a half-an-hour long meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee on the day when around 30 anti-Telangana MPs met him.

The delegation of Andhra Pradesh lawmakers consisted of Congress MPs, state ministers and members of the party in the state assembly. The delegation came to appeal to the President not to go-ahead with the bifurcation of the state. According to the law, the President needs to send the Union cabinet resolution for the consultation of the state assembly before the related bill is brought before Parliament.

Sources added that the delegation has told the President that proper procedure was not followed while the Centre decided to bifurcate the state. During NDA regime, only those states were divided where the assembly favoured such move.

While official sources refused to give any details of the meeting between Gandhi and Mukherjee, sources in the Congress claimed that the two leaders discussed several issues including the formation of Telangana.

Andhra Pradesh governor ESL Narasimhan, who is also camping in the capital for the past two days, is believed to have met all members of the group of ministers (GoM). He also met Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh, who is in charge of Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while returning from Beijing, said, “The matter (the formation of Telangana) is now before the group of ministers. They are going into all aspects of the problem and I am sure they will come out with viable solution to this very difficult and complicated problem.”